Sermon for July 21st 9th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon for  July 21, 2024                                                    9th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 6 The Healing Ministry of Christ

Do you ever get stuck watching those little tik tok videos on youtube or facebook? Ugh. I’ll get lost just scrolling and scrolling watching dumb little videos and next thing I know an hour’s blown by. But there are some that are really quite beautiful; some of my favorites are when people who are deaf get an implant and are filmed hearing for the very first time. Or men who are colorblind putting on special glasses to let them see color for the very first time. It’s really quite emotional for everyone when one of these modern-day “healings” takes place. My father is a retired ophthalmologist and he tells stories of volunteering on the mercy ships where he would go and perform eye surgeries in under-developed countries. People who had never seen in their entire lives, but with a fairly simple corrective surgery my dad was able to restore their vision. He might as well have been a miracle worker with the reactions he was getting. Can you imagine?

Our celebration of these modern day miracles today gives us a glimpse I think into the healing ministry of Christ. There is this short verse from the end of our gospel text that says, “Everyone rushed about that whole region bringing to him the sick. And wherever he went…all were healed.” This is similar to the verse we read before the service of anointing prayers, just one verse from Luke 4, “When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them.” All who were sick were brought to him, and all were healed. Last week we heard the feeding of the 5000 story. At the beginning of that story the crowds are following Jesus and his disciples out into this remote and rugged territory. It says that when Jesus saw them he was filled with compassion. Why? Because, it says, they were like sheep without a shepherd. I love this, because it gives us an insight into what Jesus sees. What is Jesus thinking? What are his attitudes? We don’t often get told Jesus’ motive. Here his motive is: compassion. He had compassion on them. Now, if I was trying to get away for some alone time and five-thousand of you followed you wouldn’t want to know my attitude! But here we see the heart of Christ – compassion. He had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. But then he proceeds to teach them…it says, all day. I imagine more than one person came out there following Jesus expecting healing. Do you think they came for a day-long sermon? Cause that’s what they got! But then we get to the end of the chapter and there is Jesus laying hands on each and every person brought to him, no matter the illness, no matter the disease, blind, deaf, demon-possessed…Jesus healed them, each and every last one of them.

One of the more important things I learned studying the original language of the gospels is that this word for healing can be translated as healing, wholeness or wellness, but is also the same word for salvation. That means the word for healing and the word for salvation are the same word. This is surprising because we think of healing and being saved as two very different categories, but in the Greek it is the same word. Several times in the Gospels Jesus says to someone he has healed, “Go, your faith has healed you.” Sometimes translations say, “Go, your faith has saved you.” And it is the same thing. You are healed, made well, made whole, you are saved. This is what Jesus does. This is his ministry. Healing, forgiving, setting people free…this is how he comes to save us!

A lot of the times on the ER shows on TV they will short-hand refer to people by their affliction, “We’ve got a head trauma in six…there’s a hemorrhage on nine!” When Jesus takes compassion on the crowd, he doesn’t just see whatever particular or specific malady from which they suffer, “Hmm, looks like a case of leprosy, I think I can help with this…” No he sees the whole person; they are suffering in part, and so they are in need of salvation for the whole. Jesus sees with Kingdom eyes. His work of healing, forgiving sins and raising the dead are all one and part of the whole work of his bringing the saving Kingdom of God. On earth as it is in heaven, we pray. Jesus brings and enacts the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. And so he can heal someone who is crippled or blind and then send them on their way saying, “Your faith has saved you.” 

In this light, that healing and saving are the same work of the Kingdom, we can now ask the most important question, which is always bound to get asked, “Can Jesus heal me?” That’s fine that Jesus healed the sick and made the blind to see and all that back then in those old bible stories, but can Jesus heal me today? Does Jesus make any difference in my life? Those are ultimately the questions we are bound to ask, not just can Jesus heal, but can Jesus heal me? And we see from the context, it is the same question, that is fine that Jesus saves, but can Jesus save me? Can Jesus forgive me? Can Jesus truly love me? It is for this reason Luther was so insistent that when we serve communion the most important words are “for you.” This is the body of Christ broken for you. Not the Southern “you” of y’all, but you, sitting there right now listening to my words…you. So that we might receive reassurance that indeed, the Kingdom of God and all its promises is indeed for you.

One of my favorite healing prayers I learned over the years is praying for someone to experience “God’s healing in absence of a cure.” That is, we have in mind a particular “cure.” God is going to heal the pain in my back or cure the cancer. But in the gospels healing is never limited to a “cure,” it is the whole person, the whole body/mind/soul wellness and even what we call your salvation. The prayer for ‘healing in the absence of a cure’ reminds us that when the Kingdom comes to us we receive the gift of healing even if there is not a particular “cure.” I find that more hopeful that the many false messages about healing that all sound like, “Well, if you had more faith you would be healed.” That somehow it is your fault for not praying enough or asking the right way or for having strong enough faith…as if faith is something you are responsible for. That is all pure hog-wash and has done a lot of damage to people over the years seeking God. Limiting God’s saving work to receiving a “cure” misses God’s compassionate work of healing that happens every time we receive his promises and eat the bread and wine. We end up either blaming God or blaming ourselves. That it is God’s fault for not being powerful enough or not listening or being caring enough. Or we blame ourselves that our faith must not be strong enough. What this blame does is misses the promise of the death and resurrection of Christ which is our ultimate healing.

Sarah’s grandfather was a pastor who claimed miraculous healings and wouldn’t let you leave until you spoke in tongues. I remember him telling me how three times the doctors had left him for dead, riddled with cancer and three times God had healed him and the doctors could not explain the scans now free of cancer. Me, not knowing when to keep my mouth shut, said, “Yeah, but you’re still gonna die.” My point was he had placed so much currency in the “cure” these signs pointing to the Kingdom, when the greatest currency is the very death and resurrection of Christ. We don’t have to point to the kingdom when we have the very thing. God’s saving Kingdom is here at work among you. And the word for saving and the word for healing are the same word. When you come up for communion and receive the bread and wine, you are able to announce, “I have been healed!” And it is true!

What we know is that Jesus looks at us with compassion. Deep emotion and feeling because we are like sheep without a shepherd. We are in need of all kinds of healing, from forgiveness to anger or judgmentalism…we are deeply sick. And Jesus layed his hands on each one of them and healed them.

And so as you come forward today hear the Kingdom promises as they come to you. When you receive the bread and wine, listen for those most important words that this is “for you.” This isn’t just the Kingdom of God hanging out there somewhere for only the most intrepid to find, but this is God coming to you, this is God’s salvation for you. Receive God’s healing. And then, should you choose, you can make your way over to our prayer ministers who will lay hands upon you and literally pray for Christ’s compassion upon you. Jesus said that in him “the Kingdom of God has come near.” And I believe that is still true today. God’s promises are right here, in the bread and wine, right here in the simple words “for you,” right here in the prayers and encouragement of the faithful. The Kingdom is still at work, and all came to him, and still all were healed. Amen